Friday, 23 October 2015

Today, I’m very
excited to welcome Lisa Williamson on the YA Shot tour!

YA Shot is an event that
will take place in Uxbridge on 28
October, organised by Alexia Casale and many other people. Over 71 will be there, tickets are up-to £20, and
there’s a full day of panels and booky –MG and YA- things happening!

Lisa Williamson is the
author of The Art of Being Normal, which I reviewed
here and really enjoyed. I got the chance to interview her, and I loved her
answers, and couldn’t wait to share!

Do you think reading
is important for teens today, and why?

I do! I'm convinced those who read fiction make
for kinder, more sensitive and empathetic people. Having said
that, not every teen is going to be reader and I think it's important we don't
ever make anyone feel bad or inadequate about not reading for pleasure.
What we should really be doing is finding a way of exposing reluctant
readers to the range and breadth of books out there in such a way
that doesn't feel enforced. I often meet young people who adore the Hunger
Games films but would never think of reading the books. Changing that mindset
without being preachy is hard! I often describe my personal experience
of reading the Hunger Games for the first time and try to communicate just
how intense that was, because instead of sitting in a cinema full of people
watching Katniss fight to the death, I was actually there with her,
in her head, just the two of us! For me growing up, books represented escape
and relaxation. I loved how private and personal my relationship with
a book felt, regardless of how many other people I knew had also read it.
Reading also helped me figure out who I was, or rather who
I wanted to be, and how to make sense of my place in the world.

Has reading ever done
anything for you that you wouldn't mind sharing?

As I mentioned, as a teenager, reading was an escape.
When I was thirteen, I was bullied for a short but intense period. Reading
made me feel safe and a bit less lonely. I've grown up with the feeling
that books are my friend.

Do you have any
stories of people saying how TAOBN has helped them?

I do, and it's probably been the best part of being a
published author. TOABN is told from the point of view of a young
transgender person, and although I'd done masses of research and
endeavoured to be as authentic and sensitive as possible, I was mindful of my
responsibility as an author and, pre-publication, very fearful of 'getting
it wrong'. Since the book has been out, I've been overwhelmed by the
tweets and emails I've received. One young person said the book gave him the
courage to come out to his parents. Another said she'd given it to her friends
to help them understand what she's going through. Another said how happy she'd
been to see the book displayed proudly in a high street bookshop and how it
made her feel like she was no longer 'a freak'. All these messages have
moved me deeply and demonstrate just how vital diverse books
are!

Do you think books
can help people in ways that other media can't?

Books are an amazing tool for sparking discussion. It can be
daunting to have a conversation with your family about, for example,
gender identity, but if you use a fictional story as a stimulus, it can be a
much easier and safer way in. My boyfriend's mother died recently having
suffered from Alzheimer's for a number of years. There is a lot of
literature on the subject available online. However, I found the most useful
material for helping me understand the disease were fictional titles
(namely Still Alice, Elizabeth is Missing and Unbecoming). By inviting me
to step into the shoes of a dementia sufferer, my perceptions and understanding
were turned upside down and I feel I became more compassionate and
patient as a result. Emotions are so powerful and I think stories that tap
into this part of our brain have the power to change hearts and minds in a
way I just don't think a pamphlet or online article can.

What's your favourite
way of promoting books to teens?

Talking to them! I love talking to teenagers, not just about
books but pretty much anything that excites them. I did an event recently where
I ended up talking a lot about my personal experiences as a teenager. I was
really open about being bullied and being in an emotionally abusive
relationship and feeling scared about my future and afterwards several teens
came forward and opened up to me in return. I think there's a real expectation
that adults have their shit together and I wonder if we're doing teenagers a
disservice by not being more open about our thoughts and feelings, even if
they're in retrospect. I think it would have made a massive difference to me
growing up.

I also love speaking at literary festivals. A
whole festival devoted to books? What's not to love?

How important do you
think compulsory reading eg for GCSEs is?

I think it's very important, even if those young people
never go on to read a single book ever again. However, I definitely feel
it's time to shake up the reading list. Teenagers are reading the same
books I read at school twenty years ago and that's not right. For one, the
teachers need to feel passionate about what they're teaching and how can they
feel energised and motivated to teach a book when it's the tenth, twentieth,
maybe even thirtieth time they've shared it with a class? The books I remember
from school are often the ones I got the sense my teacher really got
a kick out of teaching us.

I wonder if it's at all practical to
introduce weekly or even daily 'story time' in schools? Every time I read
aloud in a school, the kids seem to really chill out and
actually listen. It made me think of how there's something
really relaxing and uniting about listening to a story in a big group.
Being read to at school would also mean young people who don't
usually read off their own backs would be exposed to stories they would
wouldn't be otherwise, and might, just might, be motivated enough by the
experience to seek out a book of their own.

If you could give one
book to every teenager, what would it be and why?

Yikes, that's tough! This is perhaps a more female-focussed
title (although I think boys should most definitely seek it out too!) but 'Am I
Normal Yet?' by Holly Bourne is an utter joy, celebrating female friendship in
a way that's not often seen in YA fiction. It's also funny and moving and
explores mental health in a way that's really accessible and real. I also
recently read 'Goodbye Stranger' by Rebecca Stead. It's for
slightly younger readers (the protagonist is twelve) and absolutely nails
the nature of adolescent friendships in a very beautiful and
understated way. I'm all about the friendship at the moment!

Reminder: you can
find Lisa on Twitter here, TAOBN on Goodreads here,
and you can buy it in hardback from Hive
or from David
Fickling. If you’d like to wait for the paperback, it’ll be here on 7th
January 2016.

Review: Willy’s
Bitches is a cabaret show featuring various women of Shakespeare. A variety of characters
are used, selected from tragedies, comedies, and histories, and they take you
on a journey of classical dialogue and modern music.

So, there’s a joke in
my family that anything I read/watch is gay, feminist, murderous, or
Shakespeare. I was looking through the giant list of shows at Edinburgh and I
came across this, which promised to be three of these things...I had to go and
see it!

My favourites were Rachel Graham as a cold, distant, creepy Lady Macbeth, and Hannah Kerbes and Samantha Taylor Burnes as Beatrice and Kate,
drinking and singing a bawdy song. Jenny Douglas was a really strong Julia, who
is played with a lot more madness than a)I would have read from Two Gentleman
of Verona and b) than Brigid Shine’s sweet and vulnerable Ophelia. Melanie
Morton and Shannon Thurston make a great comic pair as Helena and Hermia
fighting, while Queen Mary (Ash Henning) was powerful and terrifying. I’m also in love with how they performed Lavinia’s part, with eerie
harmonising as she emerges following her mutilation, then Lauren Meyer sings a
powerful song about rape culture.

The music is really good- I wish they’d released a soundtrack.
The harmonies introducing Lavinia sounded brilliant, and every actress had a
voice that fit their song. There’s a small band on stage, which provides the
men for the women to interplay with, which I liked seeing (Lady Macbeth scaring
I think it was the clarinettist, while the guitarist takes the part of York). The
music varies between styles, which fit the plays being referenced.

The staging was simple, some chairs and a table, which got
moved around as and when needed. By costume, we saw each of the plays being set
in very different settings, mixing the canon time period with modern with 50s
fashion, and I liked the mixture of aesthetics.

I wasn’t expecting it to be in this format (being listed as
a musical, I was expecting all the women to interplay with each other a lot
more than they did, and it would have been nice if they had) but the
transitions from play to play worked, even if it did just end seemingly
randomly following Margaret’s section. I’d have also liked a bit more of the
speech to come through, and to get to know a bit more of the women’s stories
from what I saw on stage, rather than filling in gaps with research afterwards.

About Me

Hi, I'm Nina, a 19 year old student who's blogged since 2011, about books, theatre, and other things I've found interesting. I can be contacted via twitter (@serifinaxxx), or you can email me at deathbooksandtea (at) gmail (dot) com. I hope you enjoy your time here!